This article surveys the theory of the public enforcement of law -- the use of public agents (inspectors, tax auditors …, police, prosecutors) to detect and to sanction violators of legal rules. We first present the basic elements of the theory … examine a variety of extensions of the central theory, concerning accidental harms, costs of imposing fines, errors, general …

Does the economic model of optimal punishment explain the variation in the sentencing of murderers? As the model … respond to victim characteristics in a way that is hard to reconcile with optimal punishment. In particular, victim … optimal punishment model predicts that victim characteristics should be ignored. Among vehicular homicides, drivers who kill …

Economic theory predicts that increasing the severity of punishments will deter criminal behavior by raising the …

Domestic attempts to use financial incentives for teachers to increase student achievement have been ineffective. In …